


apple sauce

by asexuelf



Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: Anger, Anger Management, Coping, Cuddling & Snuggling, Drabble, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Love, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sal Fisher is a Sweetheart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:22:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21978790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asexuelf/pseuds/asexuelf
Summary: As soon as he wakes up, Travis knows it's going to be a bad day.
Relationships: Sal Fisher/Travis Phelps
Comments: 6
Kudos: 76





	apple sauce

**Author's Note:**

> i realized that most of the fics im working on now are going to be quite long! 😯 but i still wanted to give everybody a lil something because posting regularly has been great, so here's a little bite-size coping fluff.
> 
> hope you enjoy!!

Contrary to popular belief, Travis doesn't enjoy being angry.

The truth is, he hates it. Anger is a red hot bile that poisons his entire body and leaves him trembling, grinding his teeth, and clenching his fists so hard his palms begin to bleed. It burns through him like a sick kind of electricity, keeping him going yet doing it so dangerously he isn't sure it's worth it. He hates, hates,  _ hates _ it.

He's tried things like anger management, but those things seem to be more about the people around him than himself. They're helpful in the long run, keep him from being an ass when he doesn't want to be, but he wishes there was more for him. He can't find anything to keep this anger from rising up in him. It clings to his lungs like old smoke sometimes, nameless and pointless and horribly real. He just wants to be well.

Instead, he's angry. So angry. 

Today is going to be one of those days where this rage follows him everywhere. He can feel it already bubbling under his skin. It has no real direction, just a point of origin so old and so broad that even a hundred years of therapy wouldn't be enough to untangle the full center of its web.

Having your demon-worshipping cultist father raise you to despise yourself in the name of Christ will do that to you. Not that he can bring much of that up in therapy - especially the parts about cannibalism or wayward spectres.

Luckily, the holiday season is here again, which means his Sal's on winter break. Although he doesn't get any holidays off with his awful job, Travis calls in sick to work (and it isn't a lie, because he's so fucking sick of feeling this way) and uses up another one of his few vacation days to cope with it all. It's going to be a bad day, which means it's a good day to cuddle up next to his boyfriend and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist.

So here Travis lies, grumbling into Sal's chest, pressing his nose against his thin collarbone and his chest against Sal's soft gut.

Sal, bless him, lays back and curls those nimble fingers into Travis' hair, massaging his scalp just hard enough to ground him and just gently enough to soothe him.

"It's okay," he says over and over, a musicality to the rhythm of his voice. It's Travis' favorite sound in the world, that voice. He could listen to it for the rest of his life. "It's okay."

Travis closes his fists around the soft fabric of Sal's pajamas and just breathes. He tries to remember the things he's learned in anger management and in therapy, about these episodes being nothing more than windy days or overcast mornings, always and forever subject to change, but it's hard to fight a fire that's already licking away at your ashes.

"I love you," he mumbles into Sal's chest. "Do you want to order in tonight?"

Sal hums thoughtfully, the sound still so lyrical that it almost sounds teasing. "Maybe. I was thinking I might make mushroom risotto, though. I think I have stuff to make tiny mustard pretzels too."

"I love you so fucking much."

The laugh that sounds is unmuffled, clear and fond above him. "I love you too. Which is why I'm more than happy to make you your favorites when you feel like crap."

"Next time you're not feeling good, tell me." He snuggles further down to curl up against Sal's belly. "We'll do homemade pizza together and then I'll make apple sauce."

"I love apple sauce so fucking much."

For the first time in the day, Travis laughs. The anger is still there - and he knows it won't ever really leave him. Being here, though, and feeling Sal's warmth, feeling his love… It makes it all so much easier to bear.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading 💖 !!


End file.
